what's in store

holiday

October 31, 2012

Hope everyone is safe and hanging in there in the aftermath of Sandy. We got lucky where we were in Brooklyn, so I'm really thankful. I'm also glad we had a little taste of Halloween over the weekend with a neighborhood parade for the little ones, since I'm not sure what will be happening today in the wake of all the storm damage. Here's Juniper dressed as a ladybug from over the weekend. I'm so happy she forgot she was wearing wings and antennae — it's hard to get those tots to wear costumes! Juni's costume is from here. Wishing you all a happy, safe Halloween! Be back soon.

December 08, 2011

I just ordered our family Christmas stockings. A little late, I know, but it took me a while to find stockings that were in my budget (so many stockings are $80 each!) and felt personal to our family. As usual, an Etsy shop came to my rescue. These felted animal stockings are from the Allenbrite Studio shop. There are several different animals, and each one comes in multiple color options. Juniper gets the pink owl (since she loves owls), and Dan's been calling me a squirrel for years (since I do love to collect vintage treasures), and then there's our papa bear. I can't wait to hang these on the fireplace and have them for years to come.

December 02, 2011

I totally had Christmas fever the other week and had to scoop up this red felt bunting for our fireplace. There are a bunch of super cute holiday garlands on Etsy right now. I also loved this red string of hearts, this felt and ribbon garland, and this pompom garland. Everything about Christmas seems so much more fun with a baby girl in the house who loves looking at lights and anything red. I think I'll finally hang some globe lights around the apartment and we're picking out a tree this weekend. I can't wait to get the smell of Christmas inside our apartment. Are you getting excited for Christmas, too?

December 29, 2010

I hope everyone had a merry Christmas! I came down with a cold (bad timing) and am just feeling back to myself. I'm taking this week to relax and get organized before things get crazy again next week. I thought I'd share the holiday card that we sent out this year, as I absolutely love how it turned out. We went with a personalized illustrated card designed by the amazing Anna Bond of Rifle Design. I also opted for postcards rather than notecards (cheaper postage, less paper, and just felt like less fuss for me.) One of my resolutions for the new year is to take more photos of us in our daily life, as I honestly don't think we had one good photo of the two of us from this past year (what works against us is Dan hates to be in photos, and I'm always behind the camera.) As soon as I saw this custom design by Rifle Design, I knew it would be the perfect solution for us.

Happy new year to you all! Thanks so much for coming here and sharing this space with me. I can't believe that next month will be the blog's two year anniversary! xo - Jen

December 22, 2010

Since we have the big move coming up in a few weeks, and I was busy with holidaymarkets the last few weekends, Dan and I opted out of getting a traditional Christmas tree for the holiday. Simplify has been our recent motto. That's why I was so excited when I spotted this idea in Readymade's holiday issue. Inspired, I brought the tearsheet with me to Graceful Gardens along with a few of my favorite vintage jars and containers, and Grace created these potted Charlie Brown trees for me. I used my pine saplings to spruce up my table displays at both holiday fairs and now they're sitting pretty on our coffee table. A little Christmas touch that's had a big festive impact on our apartment. You can find more inspiration photos on Readymade.

December 21, 2009

I made holiday snow globes over the weekend. I gave a couple away as gifts, and I kept a few for myself. We don't have a Christmas tree in our apartment this year. It was definitely my intention to bring one home to decorate, but then Dan and I both got super sick last week, and we leave for Maine on Thursday. So these little snow globes helped me bring a little more Christmas into our space, which I have to say, I really needed.

First, I used Mod Podge and some favorite wrapping paper (from Rifle Design and Snow & Graham) to dress up the jar lids. I used this DIY tutorial from design*sponge, and it worked so well. It's rather addictive, too. I started looking for jar lids to mod podge as it's so fun to have pretty patterns on boring lids. It's best to use a solid lid: the two-piece lids used with many mason jars are more difficult to cover with paper and mod podge. (But they work — I only had those lids to use with my blue mason jars.) You'll want to put a couple coats of Mod Podge on the lids to really seal them.

The main piece in each snow globe is this holiday postcard from Rifle Design. When you shake up the snow globes, the snow glitter falls over Anna's pretty illustration of a winter scene. My white glitter even clustered along the bottom edge of the postcard, making it look like piles of snow. I also added in a few natural elements to the snow globes, like sprigs of pine and stones. To protect the postcards from the water, I first covered each postcard in packing tape, and then (for extra protection), I slipped the postcard into a plastic sleeve from a new greeting card (I confess to owning a lot of stationery sitting in drawers that have not been used yet.) If you don't have a supply of cards on hand with cellophane sleeves, I'd ask a local paper shop if you could grab a spare sleeve. Don't write on the card! I made the mistake of writing a note on the back of one postcard and wound up needing a do-over, as you'll eventually be able to see the pen through the card after it sits in the snow globe for a day.

After you've placed your elements inside a clean jar, add your water and a dash of liquid glycerin (the glycerin makes the glitter fall slowly like snow.) Then add your glitter. I'd stick with white glitter. I first tried mixing in gold and that looked off. I had glow-in-the-dark glitter that was less fine than my white glitter, so I thought it'd look even more like snow. But the glow-in-the-dark glitter looks a little yellow even when it's not illuminating in the dark. And yellow snow is not pretty. Screw on your lid as tightly as you can. I also recommend putting one final seal of Mod Podge on your lid. I even added a little Mod Podge to the threads of the jar top before screwing on the lid. Wait for the Mod Podge to dry (at least an hour) before testing out your snow globe. If you have any leaks, wipe off water, let the jar dry, tighten lid, and then add another layer of Mod Podge to seal. That worked for me with one jar that had a little leak.